Allegri Offered Three-Year Contract By Barcelona

Allegri Wanted By Barcelona

Arsenal target Massimilano Allegri has been offered an €8million-a-year deal to manage Barcelona.

Premium Sport in Italy claim the Juventus coach has been offered a three-year contract to head over to the Nou Camp as the successor to Luis Enrique. His current deal with Juve expires this summer.

The news may come as a disappointment to Arsenal fans some of whom may have been hoping that Allegri would succeed Arsene Wenger this summer. But Wenger looks set to stay on at the Emirates for at least one more year. The Arsenal boss believes only he can lift the club out of its current gloom. The Gunners have lost four of their last five games and are down to sixth place in the Premier League.

Allegri was telling friends last month that he is set to leave Juve at the end of the season. However, he added that he would be moving to Arsenal. The 49-year-old was said to be annoyed at a lack of support from the club’s hierarchy following his fall-out with defender Leonardo Bonucci.

Juventus have won the Serie A title in each of his two previous seasons in charge and are on course for a third straight title under Allegri – their sixth in a row in all.

If the news turns out to be true then it may come as something of a surprise. Barcelona set up a four-man recruitment committee in the wake of Luis Enrique’s decision to step down at the end of this season. The committee would lay down a template for the style of football they wish the side to play and then recruit a suitable candidate accordingly. Allegri is known as a conservative tactician rather than someone who utilises the free-flowing football so favoured by the Catalan side.

But Allegri claims his future is up to the club and not to him.

“If [chief executive] Marotta wants to keep winning with me then I shall wait for him to call me,” he said after Juve’s 1-0 victory at Sampdoria on Sunday. The win leaves them eight points ahead of second-placed Napoli.